Suns reportedly trade for Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress

The Phoenix Suns restored some firepower after losing forward Amare Stoudemire to free agency by agreeing to acquire Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress from the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks, respectively, nba.com reported Monday.

Turkoglu, a 31-year-old forward, was added in a swap that will send 27-year-old guard Leandro Barbosa to Toronto.

Childress, the sixth player taken in the 2004 draftt, would join the Suns in return for a second-round draft pick. Childress, a 27-year-old swing man, left the Hawks to play with Olympiacos in Greece with Atlanta retaining his NBA rights. He will receive a five-year, $34-million deal from Phoenix, according to the NBA website’s report.

Phoenix had some major reshuffling to do after five-time All-Star Stoudemire left the Suns to join the New York Knicks.

Last week the Suns added forward Hakim Warrick to their roster after sending a 2011 second-round draft pick to the Chicago Bulls.

Turkoglu, a key player for the Orlando Magic in its run to the NBA Finals two seasons ago, never meshed alongside the since-departed Chris Bosh in the Toronto attack. Turkoglu averaged 11.3 points for the Raptors last season, his lowest output since 2003-04 when he scored 9.2 points a game for the San Antonio Spurs.

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NBA Commissioner David Stern says LeBron James was “entitled” to decide to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.

Speaking from Las Vegas, where the league’s owners were meeting during summer league, Stern said he would have advised James to tell the Cavaliers ahead of time of the decision and he would have advised against making the announcement a made-for-TV event.

The advice James received “was poor,” Stern said, calling it “ill-conceived.”

James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all decided last week to play together in Miami, working out six-year deals after talking with each other at times throughout the free-agent process. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Sunday he wanted the NBA to examine how all three joined the same team.

Much like Stern did not particularly like the way James handled “The Decision,” he also took exception to the reaction by Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert shortly after the two-time NBA MVP made his choice known.

Gilbert released a sharp-tongued statement and called James’ decision “narcissistic” and “cowardly behavior.” Later, Gilbert told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he felt James quit on the Cavs during the playoffs the past two years, and that he “has gotten a free pass.”

Stern said he was fining the Cavaliers $100,000 for those words.

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Before the fine was announced, Gilbert said he “strongly” disagreed with Jesse Jackson’s criticism of his comments about James.

On Sunday, Jackson said the Gilbert saw James as a “runaway slave” and that his comments put the player in danger.

In a statement released by the team on Monday, Gilbert tried to put an end to the issue.

“I strongly disagree with Rev. Jesse Jackson’s recent comments and we are not going to engage in any related discussion on it,” Gilbert said. “Going forward, we’re very excited about the Cavaliers and the positive future of our region.”

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Forward Udonis Haslem signed a five-year deal to stay with the Heat worth around $20 million, roughly $14 million less than he could have received if he accepted more lucrative offers from the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets.

Haslem has averaged 10.0 points and 8.1 rebounds in his seven Miami seasons.

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The Orlando Magic agreed to a deal with free agent Quentin Richardson, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press. The deal adds another potent shooter for Orlando to put around Dwight Howard. It also means the Magic is likely parting ways with free-agent small forward Matt Barnes, who opted out of the last year of his two-year deal with Orlando to become a free agent.

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The San Antonio Spurs have signed Tiago Splitter, three years after drafting the heralded big man from Spain. The 6-foot-11 center has played in the Spanish League since being picked 28th overall by the Spurs in 2007.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

March Madness is about to get a little bit bigger and perhaps it will be better, too.

The NCAA unveiled its plans for the newly expanded 68-team men’s basketball tournament Monday: Beginning next March, eight teams will play early the opening week in a “First Four” round, with the winners advancing to games on Thursday or Friday.

The NCAA decided against picking the lowest eight seeded teams. Instead, two of the early games will match the tournament’s lowest seeded teams, Nos. 65 through 68, with the winners advancing to play a top seeded team. The other two games will match the last four at-large qualifiers.

The format will probably prevent mid-majors from being over-represented in the first round, and it could also mean that two teams from bigger conferences — those generally seeded between 11th and 13th — will be out before the tournament really gets going.

The NCAA announced in April that it would add three teams to the field, the first expansion since the tournament went from 64 teams to 65 in 2001 after going from 48 to 64 in 1985.

All four of the “First Four” games will be broadcast on Turner’s truTV cable channel.

ETC.

The Ducks signed veteran left wing Josh Green to a one-year contract. The 32-year-old Green, who spent last season in the Swedish Elite League, has played for eight NHL teams, including the Ducks in 2008-09 when he appeared in five postseason games. He was originally drafted by the Kings in 1996 in the second round, 30th overall.

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The Chicago Blackhawks say they plan to keep 23-year-old restricted free-agent defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson. General Manager Stan Bowman said that the Stanley Cup champions will match the four-year, $14-million offer sheet the Swede signed with the San Jose Sharks last week. Hjalmarsson earned $660,000 last season.

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Wolfgang Sidka, a German with coaching experience in the Persian Gulf, has agreed to become Iraq’s national soccer coach. He will start at the end of the month and succeed Bora Milutinovic, a well-traveled Serbian who once coached the U.S.

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The NCAA has granted another year of athletic eligibility to former University of Montana cornerback Jimmy Wilson, who was acquitted of murder charges in the June 2007 shooting death of his aunt’s boyfriend. Wilson, 23, plans to join the Griz again this fall, Montana executive vice president Jim Foley said.

Wilson was jailed in California for two years until he was acquitted last July in the shooting death of Kevin Smoot in Lancaster. Since then, he has been living and working in Southern California and spending time with his family.

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Serena Williams will miss the entire World TeamTennis season after cutting her foot.

The WTT said Monday she was to have played four matches for the Washington Kastles, but she hurt the bottom of her foot late last week and needed stitches.

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Dwayne Polee has been hired as boys’ basketball coach at Los Angeles Manual Arts High. In 1981, Polee scored 43 points in helping Manual Arts win the City Section championship game against Crenshaw.

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The group backed by Major League Baseball to buy the Texas Rangers sued the team on Monday, hoping to force the long-delayed sale and put a halt to the fresh round of bidding that was opened up unexpectedly in the team’s bankruptcy case.

The lawsuit filed by Hall of Fame pitcher and team president Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg accuses the Rangers of breaching their purchase agreement with the group. It is the latest twist in a complicated and occasionally ugly fight over the Rangers, who are in first place in the American League West and hoping to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

Selling the team to the Greenberg-Ryan group and paying creditors $75 million was part of the Rangers’ bankruptcy plan when it filed for Chapter 11 protection in May after angry lenders had blocked the team’s sale for months.

The Greenberg-Ryan group, Rangers Baseball Express, was chosen after a bidding process that started last summer with six bidders, according to the suit. After being selected, the group even raised its offer by $10 million because the team was still negotiating with other interested buyers before the agreement was signed in January, the suit alleges.

Although Rangers Baseball Express recently put money into an escrow account to allay creditors’ concerns, the team filed for bankruptcy as a way to speed up the sale.

The suit accuses the court-appointed restructuring officer, William K. Snyder, of trying to “hijack” the bankruptcy case by recommending that the team reopen negotiations with other bidders.

“The (chief restructuring officer) was never provided with any authority to take over this bankruptcy case by … soliciting new bids, modifying agreed-to bidding procedures or taking any of the actions he is now threatening to take in an attempt to hijack the proceedings,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.